Land Rover BAR - Waiting for the call

Land Rover BAR say they have not yet received any official communication from Emirates Team New Zealand regarding the new class of boat for the 36th America’s Cup.

Could the new Volvo Race concept be along the lines ETNZ are thinking? Click image for a larger image

Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR team seem to in the dark following the comments by challenger of record boss, Patrizio Bertelli, to Italian newspaper La Stampa that the new generation monohulls 'will be very powerful boats' with foiling capabilities.

This was then quickly followed by ETNZ issuing a statement - 'confirming Patrizio Bertelli’s suggestion today that the next America’s Cup will be sailed in high performance monohull yachts.'

The ETNZ statement went on to say that - 'Emirates Team New Zealand have been consulting with a number of potential challengers and there is an overall desire to have a spectacular monohull yacht that will be exciting to match race'

But apparently Land Rover BAR was not one of those 'potential challengers'.

Which is perhaps only to be expected following Ainslie's earlier comment that he felt it would be a “mistake” to go back to monohulls now, given how spectacular the early racing was in Bermuda.

Land Rover BAR said in a statement Monday:

“To date we have not received any information from Emirates Team New Zealand on the new class of boat for the 36th America’s Cup. We look forward to reviewing the protocol for AC36 in the near future and will react to that once it is released.”